Notes towards an actual point: Courtesy RRE, a thought provoking article about "Community Informatics" from a Canadian perspective. While the phrase Community Informatics comes across as jargon, it's a useful way to capture the ideas around such concepts as "digital divides" and "local digital communities". The article touches on how Canada is a world leader and model for public internet projects. There are many many aspects to this, but the key (for me) is that governments and governmental agencies still have a key role to play to ensure that the internet is not just an economic playground, but also a social and community space as well.